Nikolai Apollonovich Belelubsky (Russian: Николай Аполлонович Белелюбский; Ukrainian: Микола Аполлонович Бєлелюбський, romanized: Mykola Apollonovych Bieleliubskyi; 1 [O.S. 13] March 1845, Kharkiv – August 4, 1922, Petrograd) was a distinguished Russian academic specialising in railway and civil engineering. Throughout his life, he became a member of many learned societies and the author of many papers and lectures.
Early life Nikolai Belelubsky was born on March 1 (13), 1845, in Kharkiv into a noble Russian family with roots dating back to the 16th century. Although his family was not affluent, he spent his childhood and youth in Taganrog, where he graduated with a gold medal from the Taganrog Boys Gymnasium in 1862. That same year, he enrolled in the Institute of Transport (now known as St. Petersburg State Transport University), from which he graduated in 1867. Belelubsky was regarded as one of the Institute's most distinguished graduates. Following his graduation, he continued to work at the Institute as a private tutor. He developed a keen interest in science, particularly in bridge construction. In 1873, he was appointed as an Extraordinary Professor in the Department of Building Materials, and just three years later, he attained the position of Full Professor. He gained international recognition for his research and contributions to the fields of bridge engineering and building materials. In 1881, Belelubsky became a member of the Engineering Council of the Ministry of Transport and Communications.
Bridge builder Belelubsky personally designed and managed over 100 projects, including steel railway bridges spanning the rivers Don, Danube, Volga, Ob, Kama, Oka, Neva, Irtysh, Belaya, Ufa, Neman, Berezina, and many others. The total length of the bridges constructed from his designs extends to 17 kilometers (56,000 feet). In 1875, Belelubsky designed the Alexander Railway Bridge in collaboration with Vladimir Ilyich Berezin and Konstantin Yakovlevich Mikhailovsky. The bridge was constructed on the Samara-Zlatoust Railway, spanning the Volga River near the city of Syzran. During the project, Belelubsky developed a method for analyzing clear headroom for large bridges, which later gained widespread recognition. Completed in 1880, the bridge became the longest in Europe, measuring a total length of 1,483 meters (4,865 feet). Its superstructure consisted of 13 spans, each measuring 107 meters (351 feet) long. The bridge provided a vital connection between Central Russia and the Volga region, facilitating the continued construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway further east toward Siberia and Turkestan. The construction involved approximately 2,500 workers, required more than 10,000 cubic meters of masonry, and utilized approximately 6.5 tons of iron. Furthermore, Belelubsky personally sourced iron from Belgium, insisting on the highest quality metal. (In 2004, the original spans were replaced with modern ones).
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